Fewer fines dished out in Durham

SCOTLAND Yard has issued nearly 17 times as many fixed penalty notices for Covid rule-breaking than the Durham Constabulary.

Boris Johnson was last month hit with a £50 fine by the Metropolitan Police for attending a gathering in No10 on his birthday in 2020.

But Durham police has so far refused to launch an investigation into Sir Keir Starmer for an event in April last year when he was filmed swigging beer.

Figures from the National Police Chiefs’ Council show that between March 27 2020 and February 27 this year, Durham issued 1,090 fixed penalty notices relating to breaches of Covid regulations – that’s 171 per 100,000 of its population. In the same period, the Met issued 17,829 – 203 per 100,000.

On average, there were 207 fixed penalty notices issued per 100,000 people across England and Wales.